Judges ruled there should be a possibility of release and review, following claims by Welsh serial killer Peter Moore and two other murderers

Whole-life jail terms without the possibility of review amount to a breach of human rights, European judges have ruled.

Welsh serial killer Peter Moore, from Kinmel Bay, in North Wales, and two other killers Jeremy Bamber and Douglas Vinter claimed condemning them to spend the rest of their lives behind bars was cruel, inhuman and degrading and a breach of their human rights.

The European Court found that for a life sentence to remain compatible with Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights there had to be both a possibility of release and a possibility of review.

However, the Court said that it "did not intend to give the applicants any prospect of imminent release".

It added: "Whether or not they should be released would depend, for example, on whether there were still legitimate penological grounds for the continued detention and whether they should continue to be detained on grounds of dangerousness. These questions were not in issue in this case and were not the subject of argument before the Court."

Former cinema owner Moore, now 65, was dubbed the most dangerous man ever to set foot in Wales at his trial in 1996.

The hearing was told that as well as 28-year-old Edward Carthy, he had killed Henry Roberts, Keith Randles and Tony Davies to satisfy his own perverted sexual urges.

The judge at his trial recommended that he was among the most dangerous category of killers who should never be let out, a decision upheld by the then Home Secretary Michael Howard.

Over the years Moore has mounted numerous appeals in a bid to end his whole-life sentence.

Bamber, 51, has been behind bars for more than 25 years for shooting his wealthy adopted parents June and Neville, his sister Sheila Caffell and her six-year-old twin sons Daniel and Nicholas at their farmhouse in Tolleshunt D’Arcy, Essex.

He was given a whole-life tariff after being convicted of the murders in October 1986.

Vinter was released from prison after serving nine years for the 1995 murder of work colleague Carl Edon, 22 – but just three years later he stabbed his wife Anne White four times and strangled her, before being given a whole-life order.

A panel of five judges decided the Grand Chamber should hear the appeal after the court ruled earlier this year that condemning people to die in jail was not “grossly disproportionate”.

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